The Center for Youth Ministry Training's mission is to equip youth ministers and churches to develop theologically informed and practically effective youth ministries. Our mission clearly calls to train youth ministers and develop youth ministries, but our ministry impacts a multitude ...
The CYMT community wants to share that Andrew Zirschky, CYMT's Academic Director, successfully defended his dissertation entitled "Communion Beyond Connection: Youth, Social Media and Christian Koinonia in an age of Networks" on April 21, 2014. In conducting his research over the ...
In a recent church staff meeting, I found myself pleading for worship moments that model the faith for parents, youth, and children. We have a generation of parents who are highly invested in their children's lives, especially their academics and ...
"Organic" is certainly a buzzword in the 21st century and we often associate it with food products. According to the USDA, "Organic is a labeling term that indicates that the food or other agricultural product has been produced through approved ...
The Center for Youth Ministry Training celebrates the commissioning of our seventh class of graduate residents. We wanted to share with you what this class will be doing after CYMT. For the past three years, Stacie Ballard has served at ...
by Jason Sansbury After having been involved in youth ministry for over 20 years, I have a theory that says if you don’t occasionally get accused of having favorites in your youth ministry, then you probably aren’t discipling and mentoring ...
by Tony Akers Every Monday morning it happens. I walk into the room with my biggest critic. He doesn’t say much, he just stares back at me. He mocks me with his unspoken criticism. My time with him is usually ...
by Andrew Mochrie I can vividly remember sitting with my fiancee on the couch in her small house. We had been engaged for five months and our wedding was only three months away. At that moment, on that couch, I ...
by Kelly Soifer One of my favorite parts of working with youth is hearing from them after they graduate. Over the years, the spectrum of emotions can span from painful tragedy to ecstatic happiness, divorce to deep joy, confusion to ...
by Amy Jacober I was blindsided the first time I was told that a woman could NOT be in ministry. Perhaps even more surprising, I was in seminary the first time I heard this concept. How could I have made ...
by Nicole Phillips In the parable of the talents, Jesus tells us in no uncertain terms that God gives us individual talents and that he is glorified when we grow those talents. But what if we, as members of the ...
by Lisa Long I grew up in a traditionally conservative denomination, one that does not allow women to be leaders or pastors or even teach men who are not younger than they are. Sometime after my parents' divorce when I ...
by Mary Beth Bernheisel I never intended to go into youth ministry. I mean, I did at one time. During my third year of seminary I served a church in a dual capacity, both as the pastoral intern and as ...
L to R: Teresa Johnson (Dwight's mom), Dwight Johnson, Arisie Marshall (Dwight's cousin), Regina Marshall (Dwight's aunt) My name is Dwight Johnson and I am a second year graduate resident here at CYMT. I am originally from Amory, Miss., but ...
When I look across the struggle that is the church today, the greatest need I see is a church that is willing to hold each other accountable. We stand by and watch folks struggle with life, with faith, with depression, ...
One of the great characteristics of a leader is to be a learner. At CYMT, we are always learning. We celebrated our eighth birthday as a ministry on April 1, which caused me to reflect on how far we have ...
Above, from left: Overton Colton, Vice Chairman of CYMT's Board of Directors; Katie Edwards, Jim's lovely wife; Lesleigh Carmichael, Director of Coaching; Jim Edwards, Director of Finance. When CYMT was founded in 2006, we hired Lesleigh Carmichael to be our ...
by Mark Taylor Recently, I had the chance to see God's Not Dead. I have to admit I'm not a big fan of Christian-produced movies in general because the quality of writing, acting, and cinematography is unfortunately, and usually, mediocre ...
by Mark Taylor Before some people see the word "flexible" and immediately think "relative" or "ambiguous," let me quickly define what I mean by a rigid faith and a flexible faith. A rigid faith is a stubborn, eyes-closed, arrogant, unwilling ...
by Lisa Long Our church celebrated its 100th birthday just a couple of years ago. For half of that century it has been located less than a mile from a local public housing neighborhood. Last year this housing community was ...
